WASHINGTON: The Department of Homeland Security’s
Federal Emergency Management Agency today announced the adoption of a new
digital message format for the Integrated Alert Public Warning System (IPAWS),
the nation’s next generation emergency alert and warning network. The goal of
IPAWS is to expand upon the traditional Emergency Alert System by allowing
emergency management officials to reach as many people as possible over as many
communications devices as possible, such as radio, television, mobile phones,
personal computers and other communications devices. The current EAS relies
largely on radio and television to communicate to people.

The new digital message format being adopted by FEMA is the Organization for
the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) Common Alerting
Protocol (CAP) v1.2 Standard. This open standard will enable alert
messages to be easily composed by emergency management officials for communication
with citizens using a much broader set of devices to reach as many people as
possible.

“The Integrated Public Alert and Warning System will allow federal, state,
territorial, tribal and local officials to get critical and timely information
to the public that can protect communities and save lives,” said FEMA
Administrator Craig Fugate. ”People get their news and information from a
wider variety of sources today than ever before, and it’s important that
emergency management officials are able to reach members of the public no
matter what medium they may be using. The Common Alerting Protocol gives
us the opportunity to send one message over all IPAWS alert systems at the same
time.”

Under Executive Order, FEMA is responsible for establishing the protocols and
standards for an integrated emergency alert system that can reach Americans
over a variety of media in a timely manner. The Federal Communications
Commission is the lead agency responsible for adopting and enforcing the
requirements to ensure that communications service providers have the
capability to receive and transmit emergency alerts to the public.

Rear Admiral (ret.) James Arden Barnett, Jr., chief of the FCC’s Public Safety
and Homeland Security Bureau said, “The adoption of the new CAP standard will
ultimately transform America’s emergency alert and warning capabilities and
better enable Americans to receive these potentially life-saving alerts
over television and radio broadcast stations, via the Internet, and on
their cell phones. The ability to receive alerts over multiple platforms
will dramatically increase the likelihood that Americans are receiving this
critical information timely and are better informed to take actions that will
help protect themselves and their families during emergencies.”

In order to assist officials in evaluating new alert and warning systems, FEMA
is conducting an assessment program to ensure products adhere to the IPAWS CAP
profile. A list of pre-screened products that meet the profile will be
published at the FEMA Responders
Knowledge Base, to aide federal, state, territorial, tribal and local
officials in purchasing emergency alert products that comply with IPAWS CAP. Vendors
can apply for these assessments at www.nimssc.org/ipawsconform.

The three documents defining the FEMA IPAWS technical standards and
requirements for CAP and its implementation are: (1) OASIS CAP Standard
v1.2; (2) IPAWS Specification to the CAP Standard (CAP v1.2 IPAWS USA
Profile v1.0); and, (3) CAP to EAS Implementation Guide. Additional information
and documentation on CAP technical standards can be found on the OASIS
Web site. The CAP to EAS Implementation Guide can be found on the Web site
of the EAS-CAP Industry Group. Print Page